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One tactic I always loved in the original BoB was punching holes in the Radar.

I don't know if it was a good or bad tactic...but it looked nice having a hole for your units to go through...though iirc the AI always fixed them fairly quickly and even while they were down the AI put patrols up there...but there was something about "opening the door" that always made me smile [:D]

Couple of pics here...the first is the "hole" in the CHL radar meaning I can sneak in under 3000...is it even worth it...I don't know...but looks nice having the door open [:D]

This pic was how I arranged my first day (1 week LW campaign) of raids. Some big airfields, but mostly radar.

By the way, for all the times I loved this game, I never really did get any tactics. I never sat and went through scenarios to see what was the most effective height for bombing and for which aircraft or how many fighters should be attached...close or high support...these were all questions I never really wanted to find the answer to...I think mainly because if I found a "formula", it might take away the randmoness of the battles...allowing me to always win.

In the end the attacks on the radar stations were effective, but I missed Biggin Hill completely!

I lost alot more aircraft than the RAF, but the score was pretty even I think.

knock out radar + recce photos of major airfield + enemy delayed reaction time w/o radar coverage + fast sweep = lots of planes destroyed on ground [:D]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

... I never sat and went through scenarios to see what was the most effective height for bombing] and for which aircraft or how many fighters should be attached...close or high support...these were all questions I never really wanted to find the answer to...I think mainly because if I found a "formula", it might take away the randmoness of the battles...allowing me to always win.

Having spent the last year and a half looking at exactly those sorts of thing, including aircraft damage rates for different levels of AA, bombing accuracy v altitude etc, I can guarantee that you will never have that particular problem! We know it's not RL, but the game takes into account so many variables, with such a range of values, that it is simply not possible to pin it down into anything resembling a formula. A rule-of-thumb maybe, but never a formula.

Kev

Good to hear...thx

We made boatloads of adjustements based on Kevin's ability to find exploits. er, I mean excellent tactics.  

.

185 views and no-one has said my tactics are crap, so I guess I'm not doing too much wrong.

Fighters to bombers anyone? I've always went with more fighters than bombers...sometimes twice as many...?

Anyone else take out the radar or does everyone just about forget radar and go for airfields?

By the way, very good to see Spits and Hurris chasing the Germans out into the Channel!

Ok, then.. there is one flaw in your tactic, depending on your goal...

Slipping raids in unnoticed is a defeatist tactic. You want to destroy the RAF, (or the Luftwaffe in '44) not hide from him. As the attacker you can generally afford 2:1 losses, so you need to make the most of your time in the air. Reduce his ability to respond, and it won't matter if he can see you or not.

Very good point....and I am a bit of a defeatist...true to form then [:D]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

One tactic I always loved in the original BoB was punching holes in the Radar.

I don't know if it was a good or bad tactic...but it looked nice having a hole for your units to go through...though iirc the AI always fixed them fairly quickly and even while they were down the AI put patrols up there...but there was something about "opening the door" that always made me smile [:D]

Couple of pics here...the first is the "hole" in the CHL radar meaning I can sneak in under 3000...is it even worth it...I don't know...but looks nice having the door open [:D]

you need to hit that CH Radar, to the left (Hawk Tor ?) that will give you a nice gap, plus you can then come in a little higher (in 41 we also have GCI radar starting to show up

and as Harley says, you need to defeat the RAF, but, the radar gap also lets you get to him, before he can get to you, the Spit or Cane hit on the climb is a sitting duck, while the same can be said for the LW bomber that those planes can get the bounce on, so it is either a mix, or you can also try to explot it, get the RAF to react late to a raid, only to have to run into another raid once they are up, or have been flying for a while

also, remember, we do that the Obesever Corps in action

[quote]ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

This pic was how I arranged my first day (1 week LW campaign) of raids. Some big airfields, but mostly radar.

By the way, for all the times I loved this game, I never really did get any tactics. I never sat and went through scenarios to see what was the most effective height for bombing and for which aircraft or how many fighters should be attached...close or high support...these were all questions I never really wanted to find the answer to...I think mainly because if I found a "formula", it might take away the randmoness of the battles...allowing me to always win.

as has been said, there is never a "always" in this game, you can do everything right and get hammered, do something wrong and come out smelling like a rose

plus, if you down low, the RAF has a advantage in combat, up high, the LW has the edge, but, the bombers have trouble hitting anything, so a mixture of alts and raid types help

overall, for BoB, and with in reason BTR, try to keep plane types the same, a 300 plane bomber raid is nice, but if they are a mix of 17s, 111 and 88s, they going to be strung out, and easier to hit and hurt, HARDer to protect

There are two different sets of tactics:

- one for fooling around with the AI
- and one for PBEMing

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

185 views ...

Anyone else take out the radar or does everyone just about forget radar and go for airfields?

...

I'm a BtR'er, instead of a BoB'er...

I bomb radar stations early and daily. It does a number of things
1) Delays the defenders reaction, gets the bombers further without EA contact,
1a) Especially important for night bombing,
2) Gets the defenders flying earlier, the more they fly the more gas used and more fatigue for the defender's pilots,
2a) If the defender is off chasing, he is not attacking the main force,
3) Gives "newbie" pilots experience.

I generally use one squadron for bombing w/ one escort per target.

TS

Going after the radar...........got the southern coast of UK fairly naked............starting to go after airfields and some industrial targets.
From what I've read about the BOB if the LW had stuck to their original radar/airfield attacks they were on their way to winning.

you got a lot of stuff down, but unless you planning on all low level stuff, those 3 CH's are going to pick up anything from Luft II that takes off

Luft III has a nice hole, but they don't have much in the way of fighters for going too deep

funny, how alot of the good stuff is deep

I actually played Day 2 yesterday and took out the two big CH Radar sites to the west...I have a lovely big gap now for my schwarms of He-111s and Ju-88s and Do-17s [:D] - Pity the majority of my airfields are in the East!

HS - one request (and I'll post this in the request thread) - can you show in the mouse over tooltips whether a radar site is CH or CHL? I accidentally bombed two CH radar sites instead of CHLs. It's not too hard to tell just by looking at the rings and finding the centre, but it's particularly tricky over on the South East coast

Sarge Im working on the "hole" for Luft II. Its a balancing act between taking out radar/airfields and the points targets (Industrial stuff).